character creation is a major thing for the majority of us I would think. Therefore should be taken very seriously at the beginning of our journey. Nothing to be rushed through. Forever living with your decisions and making the best of them :)

I'm of two minds on this, and I can't seem to decide which I ultimately find more important.

On one hand, if I've been playing my character for three or four years there is nothing necessarily wrong with, say, wanting to get a hair cut, or wanting to switch my hair style from a poinytail to straight or into a braid. That kinda thing happens in real life and can be nice in a game when someone is committed long term.

On the other hand, our characters are our avatars and represent us within the game world. If their core appearance can change drastically on a whim, it can make it harder for people to easily recognize us, which goes against the core idea of character identity value.

I'm of two minds on this, and I can't seem to decide which I ultimately find more important.

On one hand, if I've been playing my character for three or four years there is nothing necessarily wrong with, say, wanting to get a hair cut, or wanting to switch my hair style from a poinytail to straight or into a braid. That kinda thing happens in real life and can be nice in a game when someone is committed long term.

On the other hand, our characters are our avatars and represent us within the game world. If their core appearance can change drastically on a whim, it can make it harder for people to easily recognize us, which goes against the core idea of character identity value.

Most people will identify you by your race and your name. Neither of those things will be able to be changed easily, if at all. So having some sort of cosmetologist NPC in towns that can change your hair, etc. for a fee can only be a good thing.

I'm of two minds on this, and I can't seem to decide which I ultimately find more important.

On one hand, if I've been playing my character for three or four years there is nothing necessarily wrong with, say, wanting to get a hair cut, or wanting to switch my hair style from a poinytail to straight or into a braid. That kinda thing happens in real life and can be nice in a game when someone is committed long term.

On the other hand, our characters are our avatars and represent us within the game world. If their core appearance can change drastically on a whim, it can make it harder for people to easily recognize us, which goes against the core idea of character identity value.

Most people will identify you by your race and your name. Neither of those things will be able to be changed easily, if at all. So having some sort of cosmetologist NPC in towns that can change your hair, etc. for a fee can only be a good thing.

Hhhhhhmmmmm. What about this being player-based? Probably would not be a lot of demand for it, though. Maybe instead of having a cosmotologist Crafters could make what a player would need to use the (NPC) cosmetic vendor? i.e., I need to take 10 Yarrow and 5 Beets to someone with Alchemy to have it turned into the dye I want. maybe I also need to have a carpenter fashion a comb? Leatherwright make a ponytail loop? Then take all that to the NPC Cosmetic vendo and *poof*! New blonde hair with brown highlights.

I'm of two minds on this, and I can't seem to decide which I ultimately find more important.

On one hand, if I've been playing my character for three or four years there is nothing necessarily wrong with, say, wanting to get a hair cut, or wanting to switch my hair style from a poinytail to straight or into a braid. That kinda thing happens in real life and can be nice in a game when someone is committed long term.

On the other hand, our characters are our avatars and represent us within the game world. If their core appearance can change drastically on a whim, it can make it harder for people to easily recognize us, which goes against the core idea of character identity value.

Most people will identify you by your race and your name. Neither of those things will be able to be changed easily, if at all. So having some sort of cosmetologist NPC in towns that can change your hair, etc. for a fee can only be a good thing.

Hhhhhhmmmmm. What about this being player-based? Probably would not be a lot of demand for it, though. Maybe instead of having a cosmotologist Crafters could make what a player would need to use the (NPC) cosmetic vendor? i.e., I need to take 10 Yarrow and 5 Beets to someone with Alchemy to have it turned into the dye I want. maybe I also need to have a carpenter fashion a comb? Leatherwright make a ponytail loop? Then take all that to the NPC Cosmetic vendo and *poof*! New blonde hair with brown highlights.

Just thinking here.....

Thinking realistically, a cosmetologist would probably already have all that stuff so you wouldn't need to bring the supplies to them. However, I do like the idea of crafting hair dyes so you can do it yourself. Idk about in medieval times, but nowadays people dye their own hair at home all the time lol. And yes, maybe if you craft a comb, scissors, etc. you can change your hair style yourself without having to go to/pay a cosmetologist. You're right that there probably wouldn't be a large demand for that sort of thing, but it'd still be fun. Not a bad idea!

I'm of two minds on this, and I can't seem to decide which I ultimately find more important.

On one hand, if I've been playing my character for three or four years there is nothing necessarily wrong with, say, wanting to get a hair cut, or wanting to switch my hair style from a poinytail to straight or into a braid. That kinda thing happens in real life and can be nice in a game when someone is committed long term.

On the other hand, our characters are our avatars and represent us within the game world. If their core appearance can change drastically on a whim, it can make it harder for people to easily recognize us, which goes against the core idea of character identity value.

Most people will identify you by your race and your name. Neither of those things will be able to be changed easily, if at all. So having some sort of cosmetologist NPC in towns that can change your hair, etc. for a fee can only be a good thing.

Hhhhhhmmmmm. What about this being player-based? Probably would not be a lot of demand for it, though. Maybe instead of having a cosmotologist Crafters could make what a player would need to use the (NPC) cosmetic vendor? i.e., I need to take 10 Yarrow and 5 Beets to someone with Alchemy to have it turned into the dye I want. maybe I also need to have a carpenter fashion a comb? Leatherwright make a ponytail loop? Then take all that to the NPC Cosmetic vendo and *poof*! New blonde hair with brown highlights.

Just thinking here.....

Thinking realistically, a cosmetologist would probably already have all that stuff so you wouldn't need to bring the supplies to them. However, I do like the idea of crafting hair dyes so you can do it yourself. Idk about in medieval times, but nowadays people dye their own hair at home all the time lol. And yes, maybe if you craft a comb, scissors, etc. you can change your hair style yourself without having to go to/pay a cosmetologist. You're right that there probably wouldn't be a large demand for that sort of thing, but it'd still be fun. Not a bad idea!

This would be cool, but it would need to be limited, maybe several preset racial choices.

In-depth character creation is a must. If FFXIV and others can do complex character creation systems on outdated console hardware, then Pantheon can do it for computers. And yes, barbers should absolutely be a thing to at least change up your hair/facial hair every once in a while.

I'm of two minds on this, and I can't seem to decide which I ultimately find more important.

On one hand, if I've been playing my character for three or four years there is nothing necessarily wrong with, say, wanting to get a hair cut, or wanting to switch my hair style from a poinytail to straight or into a braid. That kinda thing happens in real life and can be nice in a game when someone is committed long term.

On the other hand, our characters are our avatars and represent us within the game world. If their core appearance can change drastically on a whim, it can make it harder for people to easily recognize us, which goes against the core idea of character identity value.

Most people will identify you by your race and your name. Neither of those things will be able to be changed easily, if at all. So having some sort of cosmetologist NPC in towns that can change your hair, etc. for a fee can only be a good thing.

This was a thing in EQ2 and I whole-heartedly agree with it. It was an NPC that you paid a trivial amount of currency to in order to repick hair style and even hair color. I promise that no other player will identify you by your hair style/color... primarily because we don't even do that in real life. (The same can be said of wearing the exact same clothes every day... BUT the "style" of clothing (class) can be used to identify a person.. along with the more important floating name above their head :p).

I am however not against VR being able to make a few extra $ by allowing players to pay a service fee to change their body features (dimensions/face structure) as a type of "cosmetic surgery". I am against race changes though (unless they completely overhaul the game to include race/class restrictions).